Friday, 2 May 2014

Wicklow Sinn Féin County Councillor John Brady has hit out at Councillors from across Wicklow for shamefully making false promises to the families of the two Bray Firemen, Brian Murray and Mark O'Shaughnessy who died in a blaze in Bray in 2007 and for letting them down by not turning up as promised, to the inquest into the men's deaths that resumed in the Coroners court on Thursday last.

The councillor who has been present at the coroners court since the outset said "I am very disappointed that not one other councillor from Wicklow made the effort to attend the coroners court to hear the evidence at the inquest into the deaths of Bray firefighters Brian Murray and Mark O'Shaughnessy. The inquest resumed on Thursday last after being adjourned on March 6th. The inquest was adjourned and a lot of focus had been placed on a canister that had appeared in some of the pictures at the scene the day after the fire that weren't pictured at the scene by the Garda Forensic Unit on the day of the fire".

Cllr Brady continued "A subsequent special meeting of the County Council was called and was held on Monday 14th March to discuss the issue and the new evidence that had been heard at the inquest. Unfortunately after a circling of the wagons again on the issue by Fianna Fáil, Labour and Fine Gael and the pandering by the chairperson of the Council Jimmy O'Shaughnessy to the officials of the council the discussion was shut down and kicked to touch. However councillors from across the political spectrum stated in front of the families of Brian and Mark who attended the council meeting, that they would attend the Coroners court when the inquest resumed on 1st May. They were falling over each other on the issue saying that they couldnt talk about it at the council meeting but would attend the inquset to listen to the evidence of members of the Garda Forensic Unit and also the councils so called expert witness Michael Slattery, would carried out a report on the incident on behalf of the council".

"However quite surprisingly, not one councillor from any other party apart from myself bothered to attend when the inquest resumed. Is it any wonder people are so cynical of politicians and the promises they make. The deaths of Brian and Mark was a black day for Bray and Wicklow, not only did we loose two brave firemen, Wicklow County Council lost two employees. The councillors elected to Wicklow County Council are elected to represent all the people of Wicklow, they gave a commitment to the families after refusing to debate this serious issue on 14th March to attend the court and listen to the evidence, they unfortunately have broken this promise and have let both families down". continued Brady.

The Wicklow councillor concluded by saying "I urge the Councillors who claim to be representing the people of Wicklow to start doing so. Its not good enough to make false promises, or are they taking a leaf from the book of Pat Rabbitte who seems to think that making false promises is the type of thing you do around election time. These so called public representatives need to put the interests of the citizens of Wicklow ahead of their own reelection campaigns. I'm asking them to put aside a couple of days of their canvassing to attend the coroners court over the next week when the inquest continues".